Mom who took child to Japan faces criminal charges here

A 43-year-old Japanese woman is scheduled for trial in Milwaukee Monday on charges that she has unlawfully kept her daughter in Japan since 2008 in violation of U.S. custody orders.

An advocacy group for parents whose children have been kidnapped and taken to other countries, usually by their other parent, says the case could lead to the first return of such a child from Japan. Not only does Japan not return children of Japanese citizens to the U.S., it does not extradite accused abductors to the U.S. either, according to the group Global Future.

But Emiko Inoue was arrested during a visit to Hawaii in April, and is now in the Milwaukee County Jail.

Her trial on charges of interfering with child custody, a felony, is scheduled to continue Monday before Circuit Judge Mel Flanagan. A portion of the non-jury trial was held last month.

Inoue's ex-husband, Milwaukee physician Moises Garcia, was granted legal custody of the couple's daughter in June 2009. After Inoue failed to appear for hearings in the couple's divorce, which was filed in February 2008, Inoue was found in contempt. The judge also ordered the child returned to the United States, or that she be turned over to Garcia in Japan, but neither occurred.

Garcia got to see his daughter in Japan in March 2009, and posted video of that on YouTube. Text with the posted video says he was "supervised and enclosed" by Inoue during the visit.

According to an article from a Japanese newspaper, Inoue had gone to a Japanese court, which awarded her custody of the child and granted Garcia 30 days for visitation a year. One of Garcia's attorneys, who posted the Japanese article on his website, argues that the case has been distorted in the Japanese press.

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